The Birth of a Nation Can Contribute to Liberation — Re-Prosecuting Nate Parker Does Not

My Piece on Nate Parker Was About What’s True and What’s Liberating
NOT “Whose Narrative” Will Get “Privileged”

by Sunsara Taylor

October 3, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

I received much positive feedback on the article I wrote calling bullshit on the manufactured controversy about a 17-year-old rape allegation against Nate Parker that got whipped up on the eve of his new film about a powerful slave rebellion. At least one person argued, however, that I had separated, and then elevated, racial justice over gender justice.

Bullshit.

That’s not merely a complete distortion of my piece. It is a distortion that reflects an outlook imprisoned within the existing system of capitalism-imperialism—because, as long as this system of capitalism-imperialism remains in effect, the “best” you can do is to juggle the interests of different oppressed groups within this oppressive system.

Authored by Bob Avakian,
and adopted by the
Central Committee of the RCP

Communist revolutionaries have zero interest in negotiating the relative privilege of different interest groups WITHIN this system. We do not “elevate racial justice” above “gender justice,” nor do we seek to “balance” the two. We are fighting to END exploitation and oppression IN EVERY FORM for ALL SEVEN BILLION ON THE PLANET. This can only be done by overthrowing the SYSTEM that is the SOURCE of this oppression—making communist revolution at the soonest possible time. Only then can we go to work on really digging up the roots of each of these different forms of oppression in their own right, as well as the way that these different forms of oppression have been woven into, and driven forward by, the system of capitalism-imperialism. Yes, this is possible—it is mapped out in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. Get into it!

All along the way, this requires approaching everything by first doing the work to discover what is actually true (what corresponds to objective reality). Then, on that basis and no other, acting on the real pathways for change that correspond to human emancipation. NOT picking which “narrative” we think should be “privileged” at any given time.